English in the Philippines and the Colonial Mindset

Anthony Pascual

During the discussion at the Philippine Women’s University, we took part in a heavy discussion on race and race identity. A large focus of the discussion was centered on language, particularly on the use of terms such as “pure American” and “full Filipino.” The use of language as a means to explore identity is an important discourse when thinking about this notion of Filipino-ness, that is, how language particularly English is used reflects heavily on the way Filipino identities have been constructed. I argue that the way Filipinos use language is shaped through a colonialist constructed identity that is different from the way Americans and even Filipino Americans use language. I suggest even that Americans inherently represent a colonial structure that exists primarily on a systemic level.

Constantino (1982) writes that “many Filipinos will even oppose nationalistic legislation either because they have become the willing servants of foreign interests or because, in their distorted view, we Filipinos cannot progress without the help of foreign capital and foreign entrepreneurs” (p. 186). The crisis for the Filipinos is this subservient attitude towards their colonizers, having idealized them through a series of miseducation that has stripped away their Filipino-ness in favor of foreign cultural practices. This leads to the language problem that Constantino writes about writing that “because of their lack of command of English, the masses have gotten used to only half-understanding what is said to them in English. They appreciate the sounds without knowing the sense. This is a barrier to democracy” (p. 188). The Filipinos speak English without knowing the meaning or being able to construct meaning. In fact, meaning is constructed for them as part of a colonial mindset.

There is in fact scientific data that supports this notion of a colonial mindset that positions Filipinos against their own culture. At least for Filipino Americans, in the David and Okazaki (2006) there's a suggestion that Filipino Americans shun their cultural identity to further socialize into American culture. This suggests that the presence of American influence is enough to colonize the mind and in the Philippines American occupation is certainly still present thus the dissipation of Filipino culture continues on even in the native land.

So, when Filipinos are saying “pure American” and “full Filipino”, their meaning is constructed through a colonial mentality. They think of American as being removed from their Filipino-ness because it is the American culture that is the ideal. To be full Filipino is to be as far removed from American and to be pure American is to be far removed from Filipino.

So then, how do we get away from this colonial mindset? How should the Filipino reeducate their miseducation? Scholarly recommendations as Andresen (2012) writes suggests a Filipino centered curriculum that emphasizes the Filipino experience because “multicultural education includes more non-Eurocentric representations of cultural diversity in curriculum content and not only involves students’ experiences but validates them as well” (p. 80). With this in mind, education needs to be removed from an American point of view. For it is the American that represents the colonialism that deeply affects Filipinos. So we as Americans must ask what our role is then in this reeducation of the Filipino? In the context of interacting with colonized people, are we colonizers in the systemic sense much in the same way White represents systemic racism or that men represent patriarchy regardless of the conscious effort to offend.

References

Andresen, T. (2012). Knowledge construction, transformative academic knowledge, and Filipino American identity and experience, In E. Bonus & D. Maramba, (Eds.) The “other“ students: Filipino Americans, education, and power. (pp. 65-87). Charlotte, NC: IAP.

Constantino, R. (1982). Miseducation of Filipinos. In I In A.V. Shaw & L.H Francia, Vestiges of  war. (pp. 177-192). New York: New York Press.

David, E.J.R., & Okazaki, S. (2006). The Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) for Filipino Americans: Scale construction and psychological implications: A review and recommendation. Journal of Counseling Psychology 53 (1), pp. 1–16.